THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. I know the press has just had a long session with — with the team here about what I’m going to be talking about today and this afternoon. And let me just start by saying, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the three people standing next to me here for what they’ve agreed to do to help, particularly my best buddy, John Kerry. Asking a former Secretary of State to come back and do this has been a — I know it was a big ask on the part of myself. I was going to — I was going to blame Kamala for it as well, but for both of us.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Why not? (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: And — but John has been deeply involved; the Secretary has been deeply involved in climate issues as a senator and one of the leaders, legislatively, as well. And I don’t think anybody knows more about the issue and the damage that’s been done by some of the executive orders of the previous administration. And Gina — you run everything, Gina. Thank you very much.
Let me get to it. Today is “Climate Day” at the White House and — which means that today is “Jobs Day” at the White House. We’re talking about American innovation, American products, American labor. And we’re talking about the health of our families and cleaner water, cleaner air, and cleaner communities. We’re talking about national security and America leading the world in a clean energy future.
It’s a future of enormous hope and opportunity. It’s about coming to the moment to deal with this maximum threat that we — that’s now facing us — climate change — with a greater sense of urgency. In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis and we can’t wait any longer. We see it with our own eyes, we feel it, we know it in our bones, and it’s time to act.
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